An Escalation of an Engagement Which Need Not Have Been

It has recently, well in a relative sense of the word, come to my attention of the fiasco which had occured over in our beloved, fandom-specific image hosting website. Yes, that incident, a scant 14 hours ago (at the time of this writing).

I will keep this short and simple, as well as refrain from saying names. Simply put, I can agree that any person in their sane mind would be against the idea of promoting hate speech, racial segregation/superiority, destructive ideologies, and anything remotely intent on hurting human kind. However, while it can be considered admirable to standing up against injustice and unfairness, my experiences have left me a little, shall we say skeptical about the actual success achieved by such an emotion-laden and tactless approach taken by a specific side in this whole argument. A action purely governed by then emotions and not logic is as dangerous as one undertaken without emotions and lacking in humanity.

By escalating the issue to the point we now see, (the moderators of the website actually retracted their initial statement and policy change, before doubling-back and re-enabling it), the issue has reached a level of ridiculous prominence most of us would have rather not seen in the first place. In their (the instigators, not the moderators) attempt to solicit outsider aid, a painful, cruel blow has been dealt to the fandom because of the publishing of a specific article in an American media portal. This article very negatively frames the MLP fandom as a haven for the alt-right, and while there is the tiniest speck of truth contained therein, the whole article itself throws blanket condemnation on us all.

I have seen colleagues lose friends over this entire issue. And to what end? Nothing solid or worthwhile was or has been achieved from all of this. The outcome was pyrrhic at best, destructive in all likelihood.

Acknowledgement of the issue should have been handled with more concern and sensitivity than what has transpired. And running away from the problem is never a sure-fire way to resolve it. It's painful to see something I have grown to cherish tear itself apart, simply at the whims of selfish, hateful people. I'll leave you, dear reader with this hypothetical anecdote: If Twilight Sparkle had merely rainbow-lasered every single villain she encountered in her journey to princesshood, would My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic still be the show we know and love today?